Typically, a pilot navigates an aircraft according to a flight plan loaded into a Flight Management System (“FMS”). Among other things, the flight plan generally includes a number of geographic waypoints that define a planned track of the aircraft and the specific times at which the aircraft is to arrive at those waypoints. The flight plan also includes information concerning that availability of runways at the point of origin and destination.
Prior to and during flight, the pilot reviews or accesses portions of a pre-flight briefing document package, including notice to airmen messages (“NOTAM”). A NOTAM is a message that is filed with an aviation authority to alert aircraft pilots of any hazards located along the flight plan or at specific locations. Such hazard information may include restricted air space, runway or taxiway closures or limitations, navigation aid unavailability or limitations, aerodromes or aerodrome services changes and limitations, changes in departure, arrival, and approach procedures, and foul weather, as examples.
Traditionally, pilots receive multiple NOTAMs in paper or electronic form in fixed page presentation format (e.g. PDF) to be parsed, deciphered, and manually evaluated. Emerging technology standards (e.g, AIXM) enable the sending and receiving of NOTAM messages in a more structured format, generally referenced as Digital NOTAMs or D-NOTAMs. Additionally, at times, NOTAMs are issued after flight planning and transmitted to the aircraft for consideration by the pilot while preparing for departure or during flight. Due to these characteristics, the interpretation and evaluation of NOTAMs by the pilot may be inefficient, particularly during flight.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide improved systems and methods for presenting NOTAM information to a pilot, flight crew, or other users. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the present invention will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description of the invention and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this background of the invention.